The meaning of the letter 'S' in the acronym GIS appears to have been the subject of some debate in the world of geographers over the last 20 years or so (Wright et al., 1997 ; Sottaceti, 1997 ). Geographic information science or geographic information systems? Goodchild (2010) describes geographic information as information that links an entity to a location on or near the Earth's surface as well as to a specific point in time, he also cites the definition of geographic information science put forward by David Mark: " The development and use of theories, methods, technology, and data to understand geographic processes, relationships, and patterns." Geographic information systems have their roots in cartography. Schuurman (2004), who broadly describes geographic information science as a theoretical basis for GIS, refers to the example of Ian McHarg in 1962, who was assigned the task of planning the route of a road through an area with different types of land cover. He decided to choose the route that would cause the least disturbance to the area's habitats. To do this he devised a method called overlaying which involved drawing each piece of land cover on a separate sheet of tracing paper and layering them on top of each other. This formed the basis for spatial analysis and provided the basis for what would later become the layers we use in GIS today. Another early example Shuurman mentions is that of John Snow, who located the source of a colora epidemic in London by creating a dot density map of each individual case. The spatial data provided allowed him to narrow his search to specific water pumps in the city. Although both of the above examples are much simpler than those… middle of the paper… information science graph. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, 26(12), pp. 2227-2237.Pickles, J., 1997. Tool or science? GIS, technoscience and theoretical breakthrough. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87(2), pp. 363-372. Schuurmann, N., 2004. GIS: a brief introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.Sengupta, R. and Yan, C., 2004. A Hybrid Space: Temporal Data Model and Structure (HST - DMS) for Efficient Storage and Retrieval of Land Use Information. Transactions in GIS, 8(3), pp. 351 – 366. Wright, D.J., Goodchild, M.F. and Proctor, J.D., 1997. Demystifying the persistent ambiguity of GIS as “tool” versus “science.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87(2), pp. 346-62.Wright, DJ, 2012. Theory and application in a post GISystems world. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, 26(12), pp. 2197-2209.